Bells tolled and the heavens wept Friday morning as thousands gathered to mark the somber one-week anniversary of the mass murder of 20 first-graders and six heroic staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

They tolled 26 times in Bridgeport, in Hartford and in every one of the state's 169 municipalities at 9:30 a.m.

That was precisely the time the crazed gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, blasted his way into the school on what had been a peaceful Friday morning.

"When I heard the 26 bells ring it just melted my soul," said Kerrie Glassman of Sandy Hook, who knew seven victims. "It's just overwhelming."

They tolled in Massachusetts, in Georgia, in South Carolina and every one of the nation's 50 states, where millions of Americans wept along with the grieving residents of this shattered but resolute town.

"We need unity as a nation to stand against this violence," said the Rev. Bill Coates, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Ga. "It allows those who feel helpless to help those whose lives were affected."

They tolled in Washington, D.C., where advocates for stricter gun and ammunition control hoped the emotion would fire an effort to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines and provide more federal dollars for school security and help for the mentally ill.

"We should make sure the bells never leave our head," said Chris Murphy, the state's newly elected U.S. Senator. "We need to hear them when we wake up, for as long as it takes ... that we do what we have to do to live up to the beautiful memories of these people who died."

Investigators know that Lanza was infatuated with shooting games, as well as shooting guns. During the Dec. 14 search of the Yogananda Street home Lanza shared with his mother, Nancy, 52, investigators seized a trove of video game material as well as computer equipment, cell phones and other electronics. People who knew the family said he spent hours in the basement with its elaborate video game set-up that included computers and a large-screen television.

Daniel Frost, who sat near Lanza in a Newtown High School computer class, remembered the killer enjoyed a game called "Counter Strike." There players compete against each other as terrorists and counter-terrorists. Frost even recalled the weapons Lanza chose-an M-4 military-style assault rifle and a Glock.

Lanza used a .223 Bushmaster assault rifle, patterned after the military's M-16, to mow down the 26 Sandy Hook school victims. He carried a Glock and Sig Sauer hand guns, favorites of police, which he used to kill himself and his mother.

As the bells tolled in Newtown on Friday morning, firefighters inside the Sandy Hook station wrapped their arms around each other and wept.

A week earlier they were witnesses to 500 joyful reunions and 26 horrifying discoveries. Their firehouse, just down the street from the school, served as the reuniting point for parents and children.

"It's been really hard," said George Lockwood Jr., an engineer with the department. "But we are all sticking together."